• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.24 no.2 s.88
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• pp.65-78
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• 2006

This paper investigates the cost structure ot the Korea and Japan railroad industry with respect to density, scale and scope economies as well as productivity growth rate using a generalized trans)og multiproduct cost function model. The paper then assumes that the Korea and Japan railway companies pi·educe three outputs (incumbent railway passenger-kilometers. Shinkansen passenger-kilometers, ton-kilometers of freight) using four input factors (labor, fuel, maintenance, rolling stock and capital). The specified cost function includes foul other independent variables: track lengths to reflect network effects, two dummies to reflect nation and ownership effects, and time trend as a proxy for technical change. The simultaneous equation system consisting of a cost function and three input share equations is estimated with the Zellner's iterative seemingly unrelated regression. The unbalanced panel data used in the paper, a total of 154 observations. are collected from the annual records of the Korea National Railroad (KNR) for the yews $1977{\sim}2003$, Japan National Railways (JNR) for the years $1977{\sim}1984$. seven Japan Railways (JR's) for the years $1987{\sim}2003$. The findings show that the Korean and Japanese railways exhibit product-specific and overall economies of density but product-specific diseconomies of scale with respect to incumbent railway passenger-kilometers, Shinkansen-kilometers and ton-kilometers. However, the railways experience mild overall economies of scale which result from economies of scope associated with the joint production of incumbent railway/Shinkansen and feight, freight/incumbent railway and Shinkansen except Shinkansen/incumbent railway and freight. In addition, the economies of density and scale in the KNR, JR east, JR central, and JR west companies at the point of the years $1990{\sim}2003$ average is generally analogous to the above results at the point of sample average. There also appear to be economies of ssope associated with the joint Production of the incumbent railway and Shinkansen in JR central but diseconomies of scope in JR East and JR West. The findings also indicate that the productivity growth rate of the privately-owned JR's is larger than that of the government-owned KNR.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.97-111
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• 2002

This paper attempts to provide an overview of relationship between the characteristics of the network and competitive strategies. We review the theoretical background of the efficiency of network, which Is very important for the network-based industries. Network externality, positive feedback effects, bandwagon effects, economies of scale, economies of scope in network-base businesses are reviewed. Various network situations, including interconnection, and strategies are also discussed. In this purpose, simple but meaningful examples and cases are used to show the economic goals and means of network competition strategies. We try to link network strategies to the generic strategies and coopetition suggested by Porter and by Brandenburger and Nalebuff respectively. Since this study is an exploratory research, further studies on more complex network situation in the real work can be executed with taking advantage of this effort.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.167-197
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• 1991

This paper is intended as an introductory essay to explain endogenous changes in the scope of firm activities in the competitive structure of a deregulated, multi-product financial industry. Recently, the global financial industry has been experiencing a widespread reshuffling in its activities, reflecting both consolidation and specialization. The spread of the universal banking system, which involves the integration of various kinds of financial activities, has resulted in the so-called financial supermarket. At the same time, the traditional set of banking activities has been unbundled into so-called financial boutiques. A relevant question is where the current reshuffling process of integration and disintegration in financial activities might lead the financial industry. However, presently popular theories of the financial industry are not really appropriate for the analysis of this issue. This paper attempts to integrate the theory of specialization [George J. Stigler, "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LIX, No.3, June 1951] and the theory of the multi-product firm [William J. Baumol, John C. Panzar, and Robert D. Willig, Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1982] and to apply the resulting hybrid theory, a theory on the scope of financial activity, to the financial industry. The implications of this theory for the issues raised above are formalized under five hypotheses on the reshuffling of financial activities as listed below: Hypothesis I: The differences in the organization of financial industries among countries are determined by differences in the size of the financial markets, other things being equal. Hypothesis II: A financial firm will separate those financial activities simultaneously having relatively strong economies of scale and relatively weak economies of scope (alternatively, diseconomies of scope) from other activities. Conversely, the firm will integrate those activities simultaneously having relatively weak economies of scale (alternatively, diseconomies of scale) and relatively strong economies of scope with incumbent activities. Hypothesis III: A competitive equilibrium in the deregulated financial industry will consist of both specialized and multi-product financial firms, resulting in a mixed form of specialized and universal banking systems. Hypothesis IV: As world financial markets fully integrate and all countries consequently face this single, common world market, the financial structures of individual countries will become increasingly similar. Hypothesis V: A more universal banking system will dominate the deregulated financial industry in countries with relatively small financial markets, while a more specialized banking system will dominate in countries with relatively large financial markets. However, equilibrium will ultimately be mixed, with specialized and universal banks coexisting, as stated in Hypothesis III. Based on these hypotheses, this paper interprets the historical development of specialized vs. universal banking systems in major industrial countries as a process driven by the evolution of the financial market in each country - i.e. the change in the size of the financial market over time. In addition, this paper anticipates that the final equilibrium of the world financial industry, which is currently under the pressure of financial innovations and deregulation, will be a mixed equilibrium with both specialized boutiques and universal supermarket-type financial firms, instead of an exclusively specialized or universal banking system. Future research should seek continued theoretical elaboration and empirical verification of this paper's hypotheses.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.367-386
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• 2020

The significance of this study was to analyze the quality value of organic livestock pork for the first time based on the results of managing and testing the cycling organic farming of black pork and vegetables within farm for two years. The results of analysis could be summarized as follows. First, the pork of experimental group with crop-livestock cycling farming showed the excellent quality and high consumer preference compared to the control group of general pork or pork from non-crop-livestock cycling organic farming. In the content ratio of Omega-3 as a representative essential fatty acid, it was 1.46 that was about 2.8 times more than general pork (0.52). In case of Omega-6, it had about 2.5 times more than general pork. Especially, the U/S ratio value which was the content ratio of Unsaturated Fatty Acid (UFA, U) of Saturated Fatty Acid (SFA, S), was largely shown in pork (2.93) from cycling organic farming. Second, it would be necessary to maintain the economies of scope shown in crop-livestock cycling organic farming, and the high quality value of livestock products. For this, there should be a value chain model that could realize the economies of scope and economies of scale at the same time based on scaling and diversification through cooperative organization between farmers. Through this, it would be possible to establish a cycling model called 'community cooperative agriculture' by forming local internal markets through cooperation of production-processing and integration of distribution-sale-consumption. For the managerial activation of this cooperative organization, the government should promote/support the small crop-livestock cycling organic farming cooperative organization in local unit. For securing the reliability of crop-livestock cycling organic agricultural products and crop-livestock cycling organic livestock products, it would be necessary to review the introduction of Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.24 no.3 s.89
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• pp.143-153
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• 2006

This paper annually estimates the economies of density, scale and scope with the data of cost and output of 27 leading air carriers to suggest the political findings and strategies of raising the cost efficiency of our air transport industry. The estimation results and their implications are as follows. First, KAL and Aha would reduce their cost if they could increase international route density. Second, KAL and AAR would reduce their cost if they could expand the network but save their cost more effectively if they could increase international route density rather than expand the network. Third, the minimum efficient scale that minimize average cost of two national flag carriers which operate by the present output ratio among domestic passenger, international passenger and freight appears to be larger than each present output level of KAL and AAR. Meanwhile, it appears that minimum efficient scale of small size low cost carriers which operate domestic-oriented route is much smaller than minimum efficient scale of national flag carriers. Finally, it appears that there exists the diseconomies of scope between domestic passenger and the other outputs, that is, international passenger and freight and therefore save their cost if freight output ratio is higher and domestic passenger output ratio is lower than the Present level.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.528-538
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• 2019

The transition from "More-of-Less" markets (economies of scale) to "Less-of-More" markets (economies of scope) is supported by advances of disruptive manufacturing and reconfigurable-supply-chain management technologies. With the prevalence of cyber-physical manufacturing systems, additive manufacturing technology is of great impact on industry, the economy, and society. Traditionally, backbone structures are built via bottom-up manufacturing with either pre-fabricated building blocks such as bricks or with layer-by-layer concrete casting such as climbing form-work casting. In both cases, the design selection is limited by form-work design and cost. Accordingly, the tool-less building of architecture with high design freedom is attractive. In the present study, we review the technological trends of additive manufacturing for construction-scale additive manufacturing in particular. The rapid tooling of patterns or molds and rapid manufacturing of construction parts or whole structures is extensively explored through uncertainties from technology. The future regulation still has drawbacks in the adoption of additive manufacturing in construction industries.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.109-153
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• 1992

This paper estimates a translog cost function for the Korea's banking industry and derives various implications on the prospect for the Korean banking structure in the future based on the estimated efficiency indicators for the banking sector. The Korean banking industry is permitted to operate trust business to the full extent and the security business to a limited extent, while it is formally subjected to the strict, specialized banking system. Security underwriting and investment businesses are allowed in a very limited extent only for stocks and bonds of maturity longer than three year and only up to 100 percent of the bank paid-in capital. Until the end of 1991, the ceiling was only up to 25 percent of the total balance of the demand deposits. However, they are prohibited from the security brokerage business. While the in-house integration of security businesses with the traditional business of deposit and commercial lending is restrictively regulated as such, Korean banks can enter the security business by establishing subsidiaries in the industry. This paper, therefore, estimates the efficiency indicators as well as the cost functions, identifying the in-house integrated trust business and security investment business as important banking activities, for various cases where both the production and the intermediation function approaches in modelling the financial intermediaries are separately applied, and the banking businesses of deposit, lending and security investment as one group and the trust businesses as another group are separately and integrally analyzed. The estimation results of the efficiency indicators for various cases are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. First, security businesses exhibit economies of scale but also economies of scope with traditional banking activities, which implies that in-house integration of the banking and security businesses may not be a nonoptimal banking structure. Therefore, this result further implies that the transformation of Korea's banking system from the current, specialized system to the universal banking system will not impede the improvement of the banking industry's efficiency. Second, the lending businesses turn out to be subjected to diseconomies of scale, while exhibiting unclear evidence for economies of scope. In sum, it implies potential efficiency gain of the continued in-house integration of the lending activity. Third, the continued integration of the trust businesses seems to contribute to improving the efficiency of the banking businesses, since the trust businesses exhibit economies of scope. Fourth, deposit services and fee-based activities, such as foreign exchange and credit card businesses, exhibit economies of scale but constant returns to scope, which implies, the possibility of separating those businesses from other banking and trust activities. The recent trend of the credit card business being operated separately from other banking activities by an independent identity in Korea as well as in the global banking market seems to be consistent with this finding. Then, how can the possibility of separating deposit services from the remaining activities be interpreted? If one insists a strict definition of commercial banking that is confined to deposit and commercial lending activities, separating the deposit service will suggest a resolution or a disappearance of banking, itself. Recently, however, there has been a suggestion that separating banks' deposit and lending activities by allowing a depository institution which specialize in deposit taking and investing deposit fund only in the safest securities such as government securities to administer the deposit activity will alleviate the risk of a bank run. This method, in turn, will help improve the safety of the payment system (Robert E. Litan, What should Banks Do? Washington, D.C., The Brookings Institution, 1987). In this context, the possibility of separating the deposit activity will imply that a new type of depository institution will arise naturally without contradicting the efficiency of the banking businesses, as the size of the banking market grows in the future. Moreover, it is also interesting to see additional evidences confirming this statement that deposit taking and security business are cost complementarity but deposit taking and lending businesses are cost substitute (see Table 2 for cost complementarity relationship in Korea's banking industry). Finally, it has been observed that the Korea's banking industry is lacking in the characteristics of natural monopoly. Therefore, it may not be optimal to encourage the merger and acquisition in the banking industry only for the purpose of improving the efficiency.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.101-122
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• 2012

This present paper examines stochastic cost functions of Malaysian commercial bank from 1991 to 1997 periods catches the changes un their management structure and technical efficiency. Then we also discuss policy implications for bank integration and competition policy which is the part of current financial reform that reinforces the banking sector. The present paper contributes to the expansion of their study in two respects. Firstly, we have estimated the cost function, availing ourselves of SEA based on a parametric approach. Secondly, our model also includes as a factor the existence of bad debts. According to our results, we observed economies of scale clearly, but economies of scope and technological progress were not observed. Regarding the policy implications, the result of our analysis suggests strongly that the current policy is appropriate.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.406-414
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• 2020

Exporting plays the important role in reducing dependence on the domestic market by creating the new foreign markets. As a business strategy, exporting contributes to the national growth and provides firms with opportunities which enable economies of scale, economies of scope, and experience curve effects. Because of both the growth limitation of the domestic market and development of information technology, many firms enter in foreign markets by increasing exporting. Using firms located in Taegu, this study examined the factors of firms' exporting with industrial organization theory and strategic perspective. In the empirical results on industrial organization theory, systematic cooperation and governmental supporting positively affect firms' exporting and only systematic cooperation positively affects exporting performance. In the empirical results on strategic perspective, product differentiation foreign exporting network, and foreign entry nation positively affect firms' exporting, and foreign exporting network, and foreign entry nation positively affect exporting performance.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.92-100
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• 2016

It is informed that the Voice over LTE(VoLTE) which serves voice and message on IP networks is better in terms of economies of scale than the legacy voice service on 2G/3G circuit-switched networks because of its technological and cost efficiency. In addition, services of voice and data are running on a single LTE network and as a result VoLTE has the more economies of scope. But, there is no study about how much technology-efficiency VoLTE has compared to circuit-based voice service and how much voice charge can be reduced as VoLTE grows up. This paper analyzes empirically cost-efficiency of VoLTE against circuit-based voice service and quantifies the reduction of voice charge as 2G/3G voice traffic shifts to VoLTE. The results describe the first is that the average cost of the total voice traffic rises shortly just after the investment of LTE network for providing VoLTE but it will soon have a capacity available to reduce the charge due to VoLTE's outstanding cost efficiency on the assumption that voice traffic is fixed, and the second is that the charge can be cut to 60% of the current rate in case of all the voice traffic moves to VoLTE. The latter proves partially the validation of data-focusing pricing plan. Our results are expected to become basic data for network operators' establishing pricing strategies and for policy makers' inducing price cutting.